Living Streets Aotearoa is pleased to be joining with other organisations during Road Safety Week calling for lower speeds on many of our roads to make it safer for pedestrians as well as everyone else.

Speed is a major factor causing harm to pedestrians, riders and drivers. It needs to come down. Having the default urban speed limit at 50km/h is not sensible these days when cities are so much more crowded and people are so distracted.

We know the risk of a crash and the injury caused in it are lower when speeds are lower so it is just logical to decrease speeds.

Speed plays a part in two ways. The higher the speed, the longer it takes for drivers to react and stop. And the higher the speed, the more serious the injury caused when the driver can't stop and crashes into a pedestrian.

On average, about 30 pedestrians are killed on the roads every year in New Zealand and over 200 are seriously injured. We need those numbers to drop to zero and dropping speeds will make a big contribution to achieving this.

What's more, lower speeds make for more pleasant streets that are quieter and calmer. They're more suitable for children to play in and for adults to socialise in.

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